Hivelogic

Vidlink for OS X

2008-05-10T00:00:00-04:00

Vidlink is a new app from the Google Mac playground, which lets you use your Mac’s built-in camera to record movies and upload them to YouTube. It has some basic editing features as well, and supports importing videos from other programs too.

Can we have something like this for Flickr Video, please?

[link]

Addictomatic

2008-05-02T00:00:00-04:00

My friend Dave Pell, the founder of Rollyo, has just launched his latest new site, Addictomatic. I’ve been privy to the site for a little while now and have had a chance to see it evolve, a cool process indeed.

Addictomatic is a search aggregator. You can see results from many different sources simultaneously, and then you can customize them.

It was developed by Crowd Favorite, designed by Bryan Bell, and is hosted by Rails Machine (although it’s not a Rails app … yes, we do that).

Nice work.

[link]

Regarding Backups

2008-04-29T00:00:00-04:00

Now that I have a baby, I’m taking a lot more pictures and recording a lot more video than I ever have before. And as you can imagine, I’d hate to lose any of it. So I spent some time over the last few months researching backup options for Mac OS X. I’ve read many articles and reviews, talked with a number of colleagues (including some who write backup software and others who run datacenters), and checked out lots of software and gear (software like Time Machine, SuperDuper!, and Carbon Copy Cloner, external hard drives like those made by Seagate, LaCie, Western Digital, and also “smart” hardware like the ones made by Iomega, ReadyNAS, and Drobo).

Past Lives

I take file backups and redundancy seriously. You might think it’s because, in a past life, I was a systems and network engineer for an aerospace company, in charge of the backups for all of our corporate data, everything from payroll and HR to user-created files. Nobody ever forgets those middle-of-the-night visits to the server room, bleary-eyed, standing at the VT220 hard-wired console, using commands like dumpfs and restore, working through stack after stack of tapes from the fire-safe, so the VP of Something can get that file he deleted last week (or was it last month?), for that meeting in whatever town tomorrow morning.

But it started further back in time, when I was in my very early teens. I had a Commodore 64, and was using the GEOS operating system) and geoWrite, one of the very first WYSIWYG text editors, to create a paper for school. I’d saved up enough to add a 5¼" floppy drive, and although saving files was much faster than when the cassette tape, it was still slow, and generally I didn’t save very often, except, when I was taking a break or done for the time being.

If you have good file-saving practices, you’re probably shaking your head right now, but remember, I was about 10 or 11 years old at the time and I’d never lost a whole day of work before, especially not the day before it was due. So when the printer jammed and GEOS crashed and I lost most of everything I’d typed up, I was actually a bit surprised. Until that time, I’d always thought of computers and their hardware as being completely reliable.

Ever since then, I’ve been very careful to keep multiple copies of my work. In the old days, that just meant buying a second floppy disk (my entire allowance). Today, it’s not quite so simple. The choices we have both in software and hardware can be overwhelming.

The Short Answer

I’m now relying primarily on a combination of a Drobo, Subversion, automatic .Mac syncing, and occasional drive-cloning. Keep reading for the details.

The Data

As with most aspects of my life, my goal is to simplify. The fewer tools, applications, and devices I need, the better. In the past, I used to backup everything, but now, although I do backup my entire system, I’m mainly interested in a backup of what I consider to be critical data. This includes:

Code and Writing
Bookmarks, Address Book, Serials, and Passwords
Mail
Photos
Video
Music
Other Stuff

What about the applications themselves? What about preferences? What about system-specific settings? Those are all handled by the system level backup/clone. But you know what? After many years of preserving those files, I’ve found that when it comes to actually restoring my machine or setting up a new one, I rarely took those things along with me, preferring to install only what I needed as I needed it. I’ve really been able to keep a minimalist setup in the process, shedding things here and there as I move from system to system. Still, it’s nice to know they’re there when I need them.

I’ve found that a multi-pronged approach works best for me, and I use a few different technologies to make it all work. Reading this, you might think I’m a bit retentive when it comes to data redundancy. And you’re probably correct … but then again, I’ve seen many drives fail in my time, and lots of data get lost. I just don’t want to take that chance with the stuff that matters.

Code and Writing

All of my code lives in a Subversion repository which is offsite and fully backed up, and I always have a relatively local copy ready to go, should something odd happen to the repository. The merits of using a revision control system are many, and well beyond the scope of this article, but if you’re not using something like Subversion, Git, or heck, even CVS, you really should be.

Another nice benefit to keeping code and writing in a repository, aside from the revision history, is that you automatically have an easy path to synchronized data on any machine you use.

Bookmarks, Address Book, Serial Numbers, and Passwords

I use .Mac to sync data between my Mac Pro and my Macbook, and .Mac keeps these things backed up in the process. It’s true that .Mac is a bit expensive, and this data is backed up elsewhere (see below), but I’m hoping that one day, Apple will do something really amazing with .Mac and I’ll be glad I’m signed up for it.

I use Yojimbo, from Bare Bones, to manage all of my serial numbers and passwords. It’s a great utility, and it can even use .Mac to sync (and therefore backup) your data.

Mail

Get a nice, reliable host like Mailtrust (formerly Webmail.us), and store your mail there in IMAP folders. They keep good backups, and you can go from machine to machine and everything will be right where you left it. Unfortunately, Mailtrust has recently recently raised their prices, so you might want to check out Google Apps for a free (but possibly less robust) solution. The main thing is IMAP folders and a company that backs things up reliably.

Intermittently, I will copy the contents of the important IMAP folders to my local system within Mail.app, as further redundancy, but that’s probably overkill.

System Cloning

Although I’m doing this much less than I used to (see The Solution below), I sometimes still like to make a complete clone of my system every once in a while using SuperDuper! and a Seagate FreeAgent Pro external hard drive.

Many people use SuperDuper! clones as their primary form of backup, as I did for a long time. I love the idea that at any moment, I have a full clone of my system ready to roll in case of a severe emergency. When it comes to cloning your Mac’s hard drive to a spare disk (external or internal), SuperDuper! is the best. It uses a technique called Smart Update to only update files that have changed, keeping the cloned drive identical to what’s on your Mac’s primary hard drive.

What you get is a bootable clone of your hard drive, as up to date as the last time you’ve run a backup. You can take this drive, plug it in to any Mac, and boot up from it. What you’ll get is your very own system, just the way you left it, ready to roll. From there, you can continue working right where you left off. This is really useful if your primary Mac needs a repair or had a total drive failure, and if you have access to a spare machine.

You can also use SuperDuper! to clone data onto a replacement Mac from a Mac booted into Target Disk Mode or from a cloned external hard drive. For people who like to preserve everything, this is often easier than setting up a new machine from scratch and can be faster than using Apple’s Migration wizard or a Time Machine restore.

What you don’t get is an incremental backup, where changes to files are preserved, or files you’ve deleted are still available. This is where Time Machine comes in.

Time Machine

Apple’s Time Machine is a really nice backup solution that ships as part of Leopard. For people who don’t want to think at all about backups, Time Machine is amazing. It just works, maintaining a copy of your entire system and updating things automatically as you go. It’s even smart enough to pick up where it left off if you have a laptop and disconnect from your backup drive, too. For most people, Time Machine is all you’ll probably need.

I threw an old SATA drive into one of the spare bays of my Mac Pro, and let Time Machine update it as it pleases. I don’t really need to have multiple copies of a single file, saving each revision, except for my code and writing, which are in Subversion, but I had the drive and the bay, so I figured why not? I have used it to restore a few files here and there, and it worked as I expected it to.

I wouldn’t want to use Time Machine to restore my data to a new computer if I was upgrading or replacing current hardware because I’d be forced to do it a certain way, and because it seems like it might take a while. I’d still prefer a clone with SuperDuper! or a manual copy. And while Apple’s previous backup solutions were sometimes problematic, I’ve heard enough good things and positive restore stories to believe that Time Machine might just work as described. My friend Duncan tried a Time Machine restore and it seemed to work just fine.

For my wife and parents, Time Machine is just right, and I can relax knowing that should something happen, they have a good way to get their data back … and I don’t need to babysit the process. I can just plug-in an external drive, let Mac OS X use it for Time Machine when it prompts, and walk away (fingers crossed).

Documents

I have a small collection of documents that I like to keep around. There isn’t much, these days, but there are a few things I wouldn’t want to lose. I rarely add to this collection of files, but I need to keep them around. If I were a designer, architect, or something like that, and I wasn’t using subversion, I bet I’d have a lot more of these.

Photos, Video, and Music

Like any modern parent, I take several hundred pictures of my new baby boy every single day. Each picture takes several megabytes of storage, and none of them, not even the poorly framed, out-of-focus ones, will ever be deleted. If you’re a parent, especially a new parent, you know what I mean. And don’t even talk about the video.

What I wanted was a solution that would grow as my library grows, but it had to be simple.

The Solution

Enter the Drobo. After talking about it at length with a few friends, most notably John Gruber and Andy Ihnatko on Episode 19 of The Talk Show, I decided I’d give it a try. On the company website, the Drobo is described as “fully automated data storage that ensures your data is always protected, your capacity is unlimited and requires no special knowledge or expertise.”

Sounds too good to be true, right?

Well, in fact, it really is just that great. Unlike the RAID systems I’ve looked at (and forget about the dozens of RAID servers I’ve configured and built over the years) which require some degree of configuration and often come with a heavy price tag, the Drobo offers truly redundant storage and is simple to use and easy to setup. And it’s affordable.

Just turn add a few drives, between two and four of them, turn it on, plug it in to your computer, and away you go. The Drobo intelligently spreads your data across all of the available drives. If a drive fails (or if you remove it), the Drobo reconfigures itself to keep your data safe. If you add a drive, your storage instantly increases. In fact, this is how you upgrade your storage capacity. It’s unlike other RAID devices because you don’t need to add drives of the same capacity. Just give the Drobo whatever drives you happen to have handy, say, a 750GB Hitachi, a 500GB Western Digital, and a 250GB Seagate, and it will use them all intelligently, giving you the most redundancy and the most space it can. And as prices on larger drives fall, you can pick one up, remove an old drive, add a new drive, and behold: an instant increase in storage space. And you can do all of this without any interruption. You can continue to work, creating, moving, or deleting files as you please as the Drobo works in the background.

It’s quiet, runs cool, and although it’s USB, I can’t really tell a difference in speed when compared with the same files stored on my primary, internal drive. Maybe high-end media people doing video editing or drive-intensive media work might be able to tell, but for me, it’s just fine. It just sits on top of the Mac Pro and does its thing. I can easily connect the Drobo to any other Mac, or use the DroboShare to make the Drobo a stand-alone NAS device.

So how am I using it?

I’ve moved my iPhoto library, Lightroom catalog, iTunes library, and my main Documents folder to the Drobo. I suppose I could get fancy and mount the Drobo as my home folder if I wanted, but that’s not without its issues. I could probably also create aliases (or symlinks) for the folders in my home folder too. But I’m content to just leave things as they are, keep things in folders right on the Drobo, and access them directly.

Reader Request: If anybody can tell me the best way to easily force iMovie 8 to store everything somewhere other than the default locations, please let me know in the comments.

I’m still cloning things to my external drive once in a while, just to be on the safe side, and letting Time Machine do its thing to that internal drive. Even though I trust the Drobo, having a backup I could easily take offsite is pretty handy. Many people use the Drobo as their Time Machine drive. And it could be used as a SuperDuper! clone too. Mac OS X treats it just like a normal USB drive, and that means it’s bootable.

Final Thoughts

I’d be curious to hear about how you’re backing things up, so be sure to leave some comments and share your thoughts and experiences.

Truth be told, as much as I really do trust the Drobo and my other drives, there’s still a part of me that wants to create DVD copies of everything for storage in an ETL Verified 1-hour fire protection (up to 1700°F), waterproof safe. I’ll be sure to let you know how that goes.

Offices and The Creativity Zone

2008-03-29T00:00:00-04:00

I’ve been thinking a lot about offices and work environments recently. A lot of people are getting interested in the coworking phenomenon. There’s also the recent discussion about Jason Calacanis’ article about saving money when running a startup (and the 37 Signals response).

Additionally, I know a handful of people who are in the process of changing their work environment. My friend Dan Cederholm recently opened up a new office (and he’s hiring a helper monkey, too). Some of my past-coworkers in Austin, Texas are researching office space, and a local team of developers here in town recently made a transition from working at home to working in an office.

And of course, there’s my own situation, working from my home office with a new baby in the house. I feel incredibly lucky and privileged to be in this situation, and although there are certain challenges with this arrangement, they are easily outweighed by the incredible benefits.

But I’m in the minority here. Most people’s work environments, most typical offices, are actually harmful to the ability of developers, designers, writers, and other creative people to get into The Zone (see below).

Think about it: you’re hiring somebody who needs to concentrate to be productive, and then you’re putting them in a situation where they can’t.

Why is this? It has to do with something called The Zone, and if you’re a creative person, you already know exactly what I’m talking about.

The Zone

Getting into The Zone is almost like getting lost a good book. You’re sitting comfortably, you have your favorite beverage in hand. The house is quiet and you’re without distraction. You’re reading, the book is great, you’re engaged in the experience. Uninterrupted, you could continue like this for several hours without even noticing the progress of time – and without feeling like you’re exerting any real effort.

This is what The Zone feels like, but instead of reading, you’re creating.

Most people who create things will enter a state of mind where the activity of producing something, the act of creating, become effortless (or at least easier). Writers often describe the sensation of their hands flying across the keyboard, words coming out without pause or difficulty, the message clarifying before them on the page (or screen). Artists often describe a similar sensation, as if their brush was being guided by their subconscious mind. And although many people think of software development as a kind of science, there is a great deal of creativity involved in writing code, and it works the very same way.

Unfortunately, most people can’t simply step into The Zone. In the very same way you’d want to find the right time and place to read a book, creative types need to setup the specific conditions they need to enter The Zone. For some people, this might mean listening to a certain kind of music. It might be fueled by caffeine and a dark room late at night. Some people work best in the silence of the early morning. It all depends on the person.

Now compare this to the typical office scenario. Most cubicle-style offices are plagued with distractions: other people’s phone conversations, music, and discussions. The annoying neighbor hanging over your cube wall, dangling his coffee-cup, talking to you about his new sofa. People shouting in the conference room next door. Big bells ringing when The Closer makes her sale. The incessant bellowing of the VP as he storms through the halls, entourage in tow, blackberries clicking.

You can’t turn these distractions off.

The so-called “open office” is even worse. Instead of giving people the imagined, mock-privacy of a cubicle wall, you’re exposed to the world on all sides, without shelter, without a place to focus. Entering The Zone becomes darn near impossible.

There’s no choice about how or when you’re expected produce, or under what circumstances. Here is your computer, here is your workstation, you have the tools, the florescent lights are turned on, why don’t you go ahead and get to work, thanks, bye.

You probably wouldn’t chose to read a book under these circumstances, but you’re expected to do your very best work and be your most productive this way.

This won’t be news to most employees in the jobs I’ve just mentioned, but it often surprises me that so many managers and operations officers have such a big misconception about productivity in relation to how these people actually work.

Of course it makes sense why corporations work this way, but that doesn’t mean that this is the right setting for creative people. The corporate world rewards based on perceived productivity rather than accomplishment. People who arrive at work at 8am, take a 30 minute lunch break (at their desk), and leave at 6pm are usually congratulated regardless of their real accomplishments, while those who struggle with corporate schedules but produce brilliant work (delivered on time) are often penalized.

So what do people do? They wear headphones to cope with the distraction. They deal with the lack of privacy. If they have an office door, they shut it and risk being labeled a pariah. In a best case scenario, they do a mediocre job and feel OK at the end of the day. In the worst case, they’re miserable.

Creativity doesn’t always happen on a predetermined schedule.

Don’t get me wrong – offices do have some incredible benefits, especially on a social level. There’s something to be said for getting together as a group, brainstorming, working through a problem on a real whiteboard, seeing people’s expressions. In-person communication helps people feel more connected, more a part of a team. It’s a big part of team building. It’s even more important when you’re doing things like Pair Programming, or working very closely with another person on your team.

But generally speaking, working in a group office is usually not essential. I’ve spent many years working from my home office with colleagues in different states and countries, both in leadership roles and as a member of a team. We rely heavily on instant messaging, collaborative software, and phone calls to get our work done. And not only has it never been a problem when working with other virtual team members, it’s been a huge benefit. 37 Signals talks about this in Getting Real – Alone Time. In an article about his Bionic Office, Joel Spolsky writes about the effort he put into creating an office that’s supportive of the way developers work.

This is a big subject, and there’s plenty of room for different opinions. What do you think? What’s your ideal work environment, vs. what you have right now?

Regarding Flash on the iPhone

2008-03-06T00:00:00-05:00

I just want to go on the record and say that I believe that the reason behind the iPhone not having Flash has nothing to do with CPU horsepower, memory, battery usage, security, or any other technical reason.

In fact, I’d tend to agree with Scoble’s mystery source who claims to have seen Flash running on an iPhone in a lab. This makes perfect sense to me, and I believe it’s completely true. I’m about as positive as I can be that the iPhone engineers are running Flash on the iPhone, just as I I believed the rumor and predicted Apple’s transition for Mac OS X from PPC to Intel back in 2002.

I’m not saying I know why Apple isn’t allowing us to run Flash. Scoble’s source claims it’s because of a dispute between Steve Jobs and Adobe over their PDF renderer. This doesn’t sound especially compelling to me. I suspect it’s something more to do with a level of customization or attention Apple would like to get from Adobe.

Who knows, maybe Apple has a Flash-compatible alternative up its sleeve.

Unfortunately, I don’t think we’ll be hearing anything more about this for a while, as it will be overshadowed by the impending iPhone SDK announcement later today.

Installing Ruby, Rubygems, Rails, and Mongrel on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

2008-02-28T00:00:00-05:00

These are instructions for compiling and installing Ruby, Rubygems, Ruby on Rails, and Mongrel on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard).

If you already know why I write these tutorials, if you already have /usr/local in your path, if you’ve installed XCode installed already … in other words, if you’re an old-school Hivelogic reader, just click here to jump right to the instructions.

The FAQ (Sort Of)

Below I’ll walk you through getting your system ready for building and compiling open source software. But before I do, please allow me to answer of few of the questions I invariably get asked every time I release this type of do-it-yourself tutorials:

Why would I want to compile this stuff when it ships as part of Leopard?

Good question! Leopard ships with Ruby 1.8.6 and Rails 1.2.3 – both respectably recent and stable versions. And it’s easy enough to update to the latest version of Rails with a single command (sudo gem install rails if you’re curious).

Then why roll your own? I expand on the benefits of building your own open source utilities (like Ruby and Rails) and why where they live is important in my article entitled Using /usr/local, but here are a few of the reasons:

You want to run the latest/greatest versions of available software and don’t want to wait (or hope) for Apple to release an update.
Your want to update, tweak, and customize your own tools while keeping your system “stock” from Apple’s standpoint.
Apple may decide to modify these utilities during a system update, and doing so may break your stuff.
You can move or remove the /usr/local filesystem, or even transfer it to another machine in one step.
You’re used to, interested in, or curious about in the compile and build process.

For some people, these reasons are enough to take a few minutes to build your own software.

Why wouldn’t I just use MacPorts or Fink?

Both MacPorts and Fink are great projects, and I wholeheartedly support their efforts. I’m also a longtime FreeBSD geek, and the FreeBSD ports tree is something I’ve relied upon for ages. So I really get what MacPorts and Fink are about.

On the other hand, I’m a geek at heart, I don’t mind compiling my own software, and I like the ability to build just what I need, right when I need it, without installing or waiting for any additional or externally-maintained software. If this method sounds like a headache to you, I know where you’re coming from. MacPorts and Fink provide most excellent alternatives. Tell them I sent you.

I used your instructions and I got the following error …

Please don’t email me about it but instead, post your question in the comments. I try and read and respond as often as I can. When I can’t, other Hivelogic readers often step in and try to help (they’re a great bunch), and usually we can figure it out together.

Prerequisites

You will need:

Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Xcode 3.0 or newer
Familiarity with (or willingness to use) the Mac OS X Terminal application

Note: You will probably need to install Xcode from the Mac OS X install DVD/CD (in the Optional Installs -> Xcode folder). You can also download it from Apple’s Developer Connection free of charge.

Another Note: These instructions are written for people using the default Mac OS X shell, bash. If you haven’t manually changed your shell from bash, and you didn’t upgrade to Leopard from something older than Tiger, then you don’t have anything to worry about. If you’ve taken specific steps to change the default shell to something other than bash (like tcsh), then you’ll need to figure out equivalent syntax to use when setting paths and environment variables, or just switch back to bash, because we just roll with bash here. Sorry.

Just In Case

While it’s unlikely that any of these steps might damage your system somehow, it’s probably a good idea to have a current backup of everything, just in case (I recommend SuperDuper! for this by the way, awesome product). So you’re following these instructions at your own risk, and I’m not liable for anything that happens.

A Note about `sudo`

With great power comes great responsibility, so Mac OS X may prompt you for your password prior to executing some of the commands you’ll be typing. It may do this only once, or several times throughout this process. Just re-enter your password as needed.

Using Terminal

You’ll need to launch the Terminal application. It can be found in the /Applications/Utilities folder.

Each of the lines below appearing in monospaced type should be entered into Terminal, and be followed by the Return key.

Paths

Don’t skip this step!

Mac OS X, like other UNIX systems, uses something called a path to determine where it should look for applications on the command line (that is, when you’re using the Terminal app). The path is actually an environment variable, set by a special file that’s automatically executed when you open a new Terminal window.

We need to make sure that our path is set to look for files in /usr/local (the place where we’ll be installing the tools) before looking anywhere else. This is important.

To see if the path has been set properly, we can check the contents of the .bash_login file (the special file hidden in our home folder) for a PATH line using a text editor. TextMate, TextWrangler, BBEdit, and vi are all perfectly good options. To open the file with TextMate, for example, we can type:

mate ~/.bash_login

This will open the file if it already exists, or open a blank file if it doesn’t. Add the following line at the very end of the file:

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/mysql/bin:$PATH"

Now save and close the file.

It doesn’t matter how many other lines there are in the file, or what they say or do. Just make sure that this line comes last and you should be fine.

To make sure the changes are picked up correctly, we now need to execute the file with the following command:

. ~/.bash_login

It’s likely there will be no response from the shell here, just the prompt, but that’s OK, the changes have been picked up and we’re ready to move on.

You can also close your Terminal and open a new one instead if you’d like.

Note: You may have noticed that I’ve added MySQL to the path in the line above. That’s because most users will be installing MySQL later in this tutorial. If you’re the type to want to use something like SQLite or PostGreSQL as your database instead of MySQL, you can feel free to omit the /usr/local/mysql/bin: bit from the line above, and replace it with the path to the database of your choice. If this note doesn’t make sense to you, even if you don’t plan to install MySQL later, just keep on going … the extra bit in the path statement won’t affect you at all.

Setting Up

I like to create a folder to contain all of the downloaded files and their respective build folders. I tend to keep this folder around indefinitely. Source code doesn’t take up much space, and it’s useful to refer back to later to remind yourself of previous installation details or techniques, installed versions, for a fast install at a later time, or in case you want to uninstall something.

For these examples, we’ll create a folder called src in the /usr/local section of the filesystem, and change directories into that folder. It will be our workspace for everything we do here:

sudo mkdir -p /usr/local/src
sudo chgrp admin /usr/local/src
sudo chmod -R 775 /usr/local/src
cd /usr/local/src

You’ll download and compile everything in this new folder.

Ruby

Ok, let’s get started. Unlike previous versions of Mac OS X, Leopard has everything you’ll need to compile Ruby. You don’t need to install any prerequisites. Take these commands and type or paste them into Terminal:

curl -O ftp://ftp.ruby-lang.org/pub/ruby/1.8/ruby-1.8.6-p111.tar.gz
tar xzvf ruby-1.8.6-p111.tar.gz
cd ruby-1.8.6-p111
./configure --enable-shared --enable-pthread CFLAGS=-D_XOPEN_SOURCE=1
make
sudo make install
cd ..

To verify that Ruby is installed and in your path, just type:

which ruby

You should see:

/usr/local/bin/ruby

If you don’t, you haven’t set your path correctly.

RubyGems

With Ruby installed, we can move on to RubyGems. Same routine:

curl -O http://files.rubyforge.mmmultiworks.com/rubygems/rubygems-1.0.1.tgz
tar xzvf rubygems-1.0.1.tgz
cd rubygems-1.0.1
sudo /usr/local/bin/ruby setup.rb
cd ..

Ruby on Rails

At last, we’re ready to install Rails. RubyGems will handle this for us:

sudo gem install rails

Mongrel and Capistrano get installed the same way:

sudo gem install mongrel
sudo gem install capistrano

There are a handful of other gems you’ll undoubtedly want, and you can install them one at a time, or all on one line (if you have a list) like this:

sudo gem install RedCloth termios rspec sake

The MySQL Gem

As of Rails 2.0, the default database system is is now SQLite, which also ships with Leopard.

Many of us still run MySQL locally though, and want to install the MySQL gem for better Rails integration. If you followed my MySQL for Mac OS X installation instructions or used one of the official MySQL distributions, your MySQL lives in /usr/local/mysql. You can install the gem using the following command:

sudo gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-dir=/usr/local/mysql

We’re Done

Congratulations, you now have a custom-built, properly installed Ruby on Rails system! You might also like to build your own Subversion client or run your own MySQL server too.

Help Me Choose a New Bag

2008-02-28T00:00:00-05:00

Rael Dornfest, Dan Benjamin, and Erin Szarpa at Railsconf 2006. Photo by Ryan Irelan

I’m in the market for a new laptop bag for daily use and occasional travel. Over the years I’ve tried a number of different bags, backpacks, and slings from a variety of manufacturers with mixed results, and this time I thought I try and get input from my readers, being such an incredibly smart and selective bunch.

This time around, I’m leaning toward a messenger-style bag, or possibly a sling-pack, but I’m going to take a break from backpacks for a while.

What I Carry

I tend toward minimalism, and I travel light, so the bag I’m looking for will need to have enough room for what I typically carry when I’m on the go, but ideally not much extra space. I’d rather compromise on space, if I had to make the choice.

What I typically carry:

13” Macbook
Macbook MagSafe power adapter
Verizon Wireless UM150 USB Modem (one-half the size of a deck of cards)
Targus DEFCON CL Cable Lock (just a thin, light cable)
A couple of Uniball 207’s and a few pencils
Cambridge Limited Notebook (flexible & lightweight)

When I’m traveling, I’ll also bring along a spare MacBook battery, so being able to squeeze that in as well might be nice.

I prefer interior pockets to large open spaces, just so long as the things are big enough for real-world items, such as the power adapter mentioned above.

I rarely take my camera (a Canon Digital Rebel XTi) with me unless I’m traveling or sight-seeing, in which case I bring a bag I’ve purchased just for that.

Bags I’m Considering

I’ve been researching this for a while, and I’ve narrowed my choices down a bit to the list provided below. That said, I’m still very open minded, and I’d love to hear some suggestions based on your experiences.

Under consideration:

Booq Boa Slimcase S90
Booq’s Mamba Sling
Timbuk2 Laptop Messenger
Crumpler’s “Considerable Embarrassment” (it’s a Flash site, so I can’t direct link)
Incase Sling Pack

The Tom Bihn Buzz looked interesting, but it’s not really what I’m looking for. I might have also listed Booq’s Mamba Saddle but it seems too bulky.

I’ve had great experiences with Booq’s backpacks in the past, but as I mentioned, I’m looking for a different form factor now.

I’d really love to hear your thoughts.

Thank you!

Podcasting Equipment Guide

2008-01-13T00:00:00-05:00

So, you’re thinking about podcasting and have no idea where to start. Or maybe you tried recording using your computer’s built-in microphone, or the USB headset you bought to use with Skype, and realized just how bad that sounds.

My hope is that this article detailing different setups I’ve used over the last few years will assist you in putting together a recording rig that suits both your needs and budget. Please feel free to share your own thoughts in the comments section at the end of the article.

Some Background Noise

I started podcasting in January of 2007, with the launch of the Hivelogic Radio Show. I recorded a total of 13 episodes, interviewing friends across the industries of design, development, photography, and illustration. It was great fun, but the episodes I most enjoyed were the ones I recorded with my friend (and nemesis) John Gruber.

This lead to the creation of The Talk Show, where Gruber and I talk about topics like Apple and Mac OS X, movies, baseball, and even fatherhood. At the time of this writing (January 2008) we have about 10,000 listeners.

People often write in to ask my advice about podcast recording equipment. What gear should they buy? Is an expensive setup going to make a big difference? What’s the minimum investment they need to get going?

While I’m certainly not a recording professional, I do have a few friends who are experts, and between their advice and my own experiences over the last few years, I’ve created a few different configurations that should fit a variety of different budgets and goals.

A Note about Software

I’m a Mac user, so the software I’ll be recommending is for Mac OS X. If you’re a PC user, please feel free to share your software recommendations in the comments section. Cakewalk Sonar LE for Windows comes bundled with the Samson mics I recommend (but not with the Shure SM7B), and this software should do the job for most Windows users.

A Note about Latency

Latency (a time delay between the moment you start speaking and the moment your voice is recorded or is heard in your headphones) can be a problem in many audio recording situations, but it can be especially noticeable when you’re recording with a USB microphone or when using a slower computer.

Less expensive setups, like the Entry Level setup below that make use of a straight-in USB connection often suffer from latency to a greater degree than Midrange or Prosumer setups. If you do a lot of recording or plan to, it might be a good idea to skip right to one of the higher end setups.

Put My Kid Through College: Use My Affiliate Links

If you decide to buy any of this gear, consider clicking the links below when you buy. I’ll get a couple bucks through Amazon’s associate program, and you’ll be helping me save up for Joel to go to college.

The Entry Level Setup

It’s actually possible to start your podcasting efforts with a surprisingly inexpensive investment, about $175. The Samson C01U is proof of this. It’s an excellent entry-level podcasting microphone. I actually recorded most of the Hivelogic Radio Show episodes with this mic, and while I did eventually outgrow it, it served me very well as a starting point. This pack includes a stand, and a shock-mount, mandatory for recording good audio. The pop-filter is also important in eliminating “plosives” and other annoying, amateurish mouth noises. Trust me, you want one of these.

Hardware:

Samson C01U Recording/Podcasting Pak ($150)
Samson PS01 Pop Filter ($25)

Software:

GarageBand for OS X (part of iLife, usually bundled with a new Mac)
and optionally, for more granular editing

Fission for OS X ($32)

If you’d rather not buy the whole setup, you can buy the C01U microphone all by itself for $85.

The Midrange Setup

Maybe you’ve been podcasting for a little while, and you’re ready to move on to a slightly better setup. Or perhaps you just want to start out with a more professional sound. For just $330, this is the setup for you. You’ll spend a bit more, but you’ll have superior control of your audio without spending a fortune. Several of the last Hivelogic episodes and the first few The Talk Show episodes were recorded with this setup.

The difference between a condenser mic running through a decent pre-amp and running on phantom power is quite noticeable. And although there is some learning curve, the advantages of tweaking your audio with a more professional-grade application like SoundStudio 3 are huge.

Hardware:

Samson CL8 Condenser Mic ($150)
Samson Shockmount ($30)
On Stage Mic Stand ($17)
Samson PS01 Pop Filter ($25)
XLR to XLR Microphone Cable ($9)
M-Audio MobilePre USB Mobile Preamp ($100)

The microphone plugs into the M-Audio preamp with the XLR cable, and the M-Audio plugs into the back of your computer with an included USB cable. The M-Audio drivers are updated regurlarly, and provide you with an audio input to record with any software.

You can tweak your input levels, and even plug in a set of headphones to listen to yourself while you record without the latency of a USB connection.

Software:

GarageBand for OS X (part of iLife, usually bundled with a new Mac)
or

Freeverse SoundStudio 3 for OS X ($80)

If you’re upgrading from the Entry Level setup above or if you don’t want the stand and shock-mount, you can just buy the mic by itself and use your old stand, shock-mount, and pop-filter because the externally, the microphones are the same.

The Prosumer Setup

Maybe you’ve been recording for a while, and you’re ready to upgrade, or perhaps you’re prepared to make a more serious investment from the get-go, because you just don’t play around. Either way, you’re ready for professional gear, and this is the good stuff, right here. You’ll spend about $700, but if you’re serious and want to do things right, it’s worth every penny.

Hardware:

Shure SM7B Dynamic Microphone ($315)
M-Audio Firewire Solo ($180)
PreSonus TubePRE ($100)
Heil PL-2T Silent Microphone Boom ($99)
XLR to XLR Microphone Cable ($18 – two at $9 each)

Software:

Freeverse SoundStudio 3 for OS X ($80)
or, if you’re really serious

Soundtrack Pro 2 (part of Logic Studio) for OS X ($480)

The Shure SM7B is simply amazing. Super tight. Rolls off the low-end so you don’t sound boomy. Built-in shock mount. Included windscreen so there’s no cumbersome pop-filter. This mic is used across the broadcasting and recording industries, and because it’s dynamic, you’ll eliminate most (if not all) of the background noise commonly picked up by a condenser mic.

The Heil Silent Microphone boom means you can sit or stand and move around while you’re recording, and pull or adjust the microphone at any time, without any sound.

The Shure SM7B is somewhat “gain hungry,” meaning that it requires a lot of quiet gain. This isn’t a problem in a professional studio, but in your home studio, you’ll need to boost the signal quite a bit, but without introducing additional noise or hiss. You can accomplish this with the PreSonus TubePRE, a relatively quiet microphone (and instrument) preamp.

Just plug the Shure into the TubePRE to boost the signal before plugging it into the M-Audio Firewire Solo, which connects to your computer with a Firewire 400 style cable, again using the M-Audio drivers to create your sound input device.

A Bit of Advice about Technique

If you listen closely to some of the The Talk Show episodes, you may notice a difference – sometimes significant – between Gruber’s audio and my own. Whereas my audio is pretty good quality, Gruber’s is (usually) quite mediocre. Although prior to Episode 14, Gruber was using a more entry-level setup, this is not solely to blame for his audio quality. In fact, I used the very same mic he’s using for all of the Hivelogic podcasts, so it can’t be to blame.

Rather, the problem is inconsistent mic-addressing technique. One must speak right into the “sweet spot” of a microphone at all times, and the only way to do this is to listen to yourself when you record.

If you’ve ever used software like Skype to talk to people over the interwebs, you may have noticed something missing, but not quite been able to identify what it was. Next time, compare the difference between a Skype call and a call over a land-line, and you may discover that what’s missing is your own voice coming back to you in the ear-piece. That’s right, land-lines pick up your own voice from the phone’s mouthpiece and play it back to you in the ear-piece, quietly providing you with just enough feedback so that you can hear how you sound. Some cell phones work the very same way.

It’s subtle, but it’s there, and it makes a difference.

The same thing is true when you record a podcast, but it’s even more important that you listen to yourself during a recording. You can keep the volume quite low, but hearing your own voice is the only way for you to truly see how your recorded audio is going to sound.

Why do you think professional recording artists, radio talk show hosts, and DJ’s wear headphones? Certainly not because they look or feel good. It’s to hear themselves and their mic technique.

Fortunately, it is possible to overcome bad technique with good editing, so if Gruber and I sound good to your ear, you have our recording engineer Ryan Irelan to thank.

It’s a Wrap

Hopefully this article has been useful to you. Audio recording is a big territory with lots of room for ideas, thoughts, and opinions, and I know I still have a lot to learn. Please feel free to add your comments below and share your audio recording recommendation and tips.

Interarchy 9

2008-01-11T11:23:42-05:00

I’m really enjoying the new release of Interarchy, which now supports SSH-based transfer protocol and features a redesigned, tab-based UI. Very nice work, Nolobe. You can read the release-notes here.

Things

2008-01-07T11:07:15-05:00

I’m really liking Things, a task management application for Mac OS X. I recommend you give it a try if you’re looking for an elegant GTD-style application.

The Enkoder ... for Leopard?

2008-01-07T00:00:00-05:00

Long ago there was a Mac OS X version of the Enkoder available, and I’m thinking about re-releasing an updated, Universal Binary version for Leopard (and Tiger).

I wouldn’t charge anything for it at this point, but I might include a donation link.

Is this something you might be interested in?

Discuss.

The Enkoder Web Form is Back

2008-01-04T17:29:30-05:00

After a week of downtime as Hivelogic was folded, spun, and mutilated a bit, the Online Enkoder Web Form is back online.

Thanks to Ryan Schwartz for some system tweakage, and thanks to you for your patience.

36 Startup Tips

2007-12-28T18:34:34-05:00

36 Startup Tips, a list of best practices for an early-stage startup covering software engineering, infrastructure, PR, conferences, legal and finance.

Introducing Joel Benjamin

2007-12-22T17:18:11-05:00

Installing MySQL on Mac OS X

2007-11-10T00:00:00-05:00

What follows are instructions for building and installing MySQL 5 on Mac OS X. These instructions should work perfectly on both Tiger and Leopard.

If you’re a pro at this type of thing already, if you’re impatient, or just feeling lucky, you can download the basic install steps as a shell script and give that a go. Just make sure you’ve installed Xcode and set your path correctly (if that doesn’t make sense, you should keep reading).

Why You Might Want to Build MySQL Yourself

So why would you want to compile your own version of MySQL when the MySQL team releases a Mac OS X build that you can download and install in one step? There are a few reasons:

As of today (2007-11-09) there isn’t a MySQL package-installer for Leopard, and the Tiger one has a few issues
You’ll have a stand-alone, easy-to-update version of MySQL that you control and understand
When a new version of MySQL comes out, you won’t have to wait for the MySQL team to release a package for Mac OS X (or for your version of Mac OS X) ... just download the latest source and follow the steps – they never change
You can easily uninstall MySQL yourself at any time
Compiling software yourself lets you learn how Mac OS X and the software you use really work behind the scenes

But … there are some downsides, too:

You won’t get a Preference Pane to start/stop MySQL (unless Mantorg agrees to build us one. Idea: email him and tell him you want him to)
It takes about 20 minutes to build and install

In the end, compiling and installing MySQL this way is well worth the effort, as the end result delivers an easy-to-upgrade, system-independent, stand-alone development platform that is impervious to potential problems that can be caused by system updates, operating system upgrades, etc.

By rolling our own from source this way, we also have full control over our environment. We know what’s installed and where, what version we’ve used, where it came from, and there’s no dependence on an external ports system and the breakage or issues that come from relying on others to manage our software.

These issues and additional background information about why one might roll their own tools in this fashion are detailed in the article, Using /usr/local/, which could be considered a prerequisite for this task.

A Quick Warning

While it’s unlikely anything we do here might do any kind of damage to the system, it’s good advice to have a current backup of everything, just in case. I don’t take any responsibility for anything that results from following these instructions. You’re following these instructions at your own risk.

Prerequisites

You’ll need to install Xcode. Xcode can be found in the Optional Installs folder of the installation DVD. You can also download the latest version from Apple by getting a (free) membership from the Apple Developer Connection.

Just double click the Xcode installer package, take the defaults, and you’ll be ready to roll.

A Note About Existing MySQL Installations

If you already have MySQL installed and used the package installer from MySQL to install it, you need to remove a single file (actually a symlink) to disable it:

sudo rm /usr/local/mysql

If you also installed the StartupItem package, you’ll want to remove it as well. Keep in mind that if you ever want to auto-start the old version of MySQL later on, you’ll need to re-download the package installer and reinstall the StartupItem.

sudo rm -rf /Library/StartupItems/MySQLCOM/

Exporting or migrating your old data isn’t difficult, but it is beyond the scope of this article. I may write something up to handle this in a subsequent article if it’s something people want.

Terminal

We’re going to be typing archaic commands into a window using a monospaced font, just like in a movie! And if things go well, later, your life-sized avatar will learn kung-fu.

Open the Terminal application. It can be found in the /Applications/Utilities folder.

Each of the lines below appearing in monospaced type should be entered into Terminal, and be followed by the Return key. But you knew that already.

Setting the Path

Do not skip this step! Most everything else will fail if you do.

mate ~/.bash_login

This will open the file if it already exists, or open a blank file if it doesn’t. Add the following line at the very end of the file:

export PATH="/usr/local/bin:/usr/local/sbin:/usr/local/mysql/bin:$PATH"

Now save and close the file.

It doesn’t matter how many other lines there are in the file, or what they say or do. Just make sure that this line comes last and you should be fine.

To make sure the changes are picked up correctly, we now need to execute the file with the following command:

. ~/.bash_login

It’s likely there will be no response from the shell here, just the prompt, but that’s OK, the changes have been picked up and we’re ready to move on.

You can also close your Terminal and open a new one instead if you’d like.

Setting Up

I like to create a folder to contain the MySQL source code file and build folder. This way, I can later uninstall MySQL easily, as well as download and compile new versions, all in one place.

For these examples, we’ll create a folder called src in our home folder, and change directories into that folder. It will be our workspace for everything we do here:

mkdir -p ~/src
cd ~/src

You’ll download and compile everything in this new folder.

Download, Extract, Etc.

Now we’re ready to start the real work. Just type (or cut-n-paste) each one of the following lines into Terminal, one by one. When one line finishes (some will take a while and dump a lot of information to the screen), enter the next one.

This will first download and then expand the MySQL source code distribution:

curl -O http://mysql.he.net/Downloads/MySQL-5.0/mysql-5.0.45.tar.gz
tar xzvf mysql-5.0.45.tar.gz
cd mysql-5.0.45

You then need to configure MySQL:

CC=gcc CFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer" CXX=gcc \
CXXFLAGS="-O3 -fno-omit-frame-pointer -felide-constructors \
-fno-exceptions -fno-rtti" \
./configure --prefix=/usr/local/mysql \
--with-extra-charsets=complex --enable-thread-safe-client \
--enable-local-infile --enable-shared

When that process completes, you can initiate the actual compilation process:

make

This part can take a while. Now is a good time to go and get yourself a tasty beverage.

The last part of the build process is where MySQL actually gets installed. You’ll be prompted for your password here, because this is where files actually get written to their actual locations:

sudo make install

Next, we need to setup the initial databases and privileges. You may be prompted for your password again:

cd /usr/local/mysql
sudo ./bin/mysql_install_db --user=mysql
sudo chown -R mysql ./var

That’s it, MySQL is installed. But you’re not done yet.

Auto-Starting MySQL

Now that the install is done, you need to have MySQL auto-start every time you start or reboot your Mac. The easiest way to do this is using launchd.

I’ve prepared a launchd plist file that will manage MySQL, starting it at boot and stopping it cleanly at shutdown. Create a file named com.mysql.mysqld.plist using the text-editor of your choice, and save it to your Desktop. Enter the following text into the file:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
    <key>KeepAlive</key>
    <true/>
    <key>Label</key>
    <string>com.mysql.mysqld</string>
    <key>Program</key>
    <string>/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysqld_safe</string>
    <key>RunAtLoad</key>
    <true/>
    <key>UserName</key>
    <string>mysql</string>
    <key>WorkingDirectory</key>
    <string>/usr/local/mysql</string>
</dict>
</plist>

Now we need to move the file into place and set the permissions on it. You may be prompted for your password again:

sudo mv ~/Desktop/com.mysql.mysqld.plist /Library/LaunchDaemons
sudo chown root /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysqld.plist

With the file in place, the last step is to tell launchd to load and startup MySQL. You may be prompted for your password again:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysqld.plist

If things go well, you won’t see anything special happen, but MySQL will have started up. You can verify this, again back in Terminal:

mysql -uroot

This will initiate MySQL’s command-line monitor. If everything went well, you should see something like this:

Welcome to the MySQL monitor.  Commands end with ; or \g.
Your MySQL connection id is 1
Server version: 5.0.45 Source distribution
Type 'help;' or '\h' for help. Type '\c' to clear the buffer.
mysql&gt;

If you see that, that’s it, you’re done! Type exit to quit the MySQL monitor.

If you see something else, verify that your paths are set correctly and try the command again. If things still don’t work, it’s likely that something didn’t work and the compile didn’t finish. Try going through the steps once more and see if you can catch any error messages.

Starting and Stopping MySQL Manually

If you ever want to stop MySQL manually, use this command in Terminal, entering you password when prompted:

sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysqld.plist

To start it manually, use this command in Terminal, entering you password when prompted:

sudo launchctl load -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysqld.plist

A Note about Security

The easiest way to secure your MySQL installation without affecting the way you (or your applications) will need to communicate with it is to limit anything but local connections to your MySQL server. In other words, only you and the apps you run on your own Mac will be able to connect. You won’t need to enter passwords when interacting with MySQL locally, and won’t need to tweak the default database.yml files that Rails creates, for example.

We can limit access by creating (or editing) the /etc/my.cnf file. If you have TextMate installed, you can enter the following command to create (or edit) the file:

mate /etc/my.cnf

If you use BBEdit, you’d use this command:

bbedit /etc/my.cnf

The handy bit about using TextMate (or BBEdit) for this task is that it will handle authentication and setting permissions for you.

Enter the following text into the file save it and close it, authenticating as needed:

[mysqld]
bind-address = 127.0.0.1

Thanks to my friend Mike Clark for this tip.

If limiting access isn’t enough for you, you can read about setting a root access password for MySQL in this article.

Baking-In the MySQL Bindings

You can gain some bigtime Rails-to-MySQL speed improvements by building the MySQL C bindings for Ruby.

If you have an Intel Mac, just run the following command (entering your password when prompted):

sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch i386" gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config

If you have a PPC Mac (I hear some still exist), you’d enter:

sudo env ARCHFLAGS="-arch ppc" gem install mysql -- --with-mysql-config=/usr/local/mysql/bin/mysql_config

You’ll see a prompt asking you which gem to install:

Select which gem to install for your platform (universal-darwin9.0)
 1. mysql 2.7.3 (mswin32)
 2. mysql 2.7.1 (mswin32)
 3. mysql 2.7 (ruby)
 4. mysql 2.6 (ruby)
 5. Skip this gem
 6. Cancel installation

Pick the option closest to the top that ends in “(ruby)”. In the example above, we’d want to select option 3.

Uninstalling MySQL

In case you one day decide that you’d like to remove MySQL, it’s easy to do when building from source:

cd ~/src/mysql-5.0.45
sudo make uninstall
sudo launchctl unload -w /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysqld.plist
sudo rm /Library/LaunchDaemons/com.mysql.mysqld.plist

That’s It

So, you’re done. What are you waiting for? Go create the next Google or something.

Special thanks to Koz, Mike Clark, Ryan Schwartz, and Jason Seifer for their tips and suggestions.

"Installing Rails on Leopard" Article Coming Soon

2007-10-26T09:02:25-04:00

Update: The Ruby on Rails for Leopard installation instructions can be found here.

The instructions in my article on Building Ruby, Rails, Subversion, Mongrel, and MySQL on Mac OS X article don’t work perfectly on Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5). I will be releasing a new set of build instructions for building Ruby on Rails (and all of the prerequisites) customized for Leopard once I’ve had a day or so to test and finalize them with the public release.Of course I realize that Leopard ships with Ruby, Rails, and a host of supportive utilities and libraries, but there are still some important reasons why you might still want to roll your own version of our favorite web application framework.Watch this space.

Daring Fireball T-Shirt Spotted on CBS Sunday Morning

2007-06-03T08:51:14-04:00

Spotted during the segment on Maker Faire where they were showing the audience present for Steve Wozniak’s talk.

My Railsconf 2007 Slides

2007-05-22T13:27:09-04:00

I’m back from Railsconf 2007 in Portland where I had the honor of giving a talk entitled Building Community Focused Web Apps with Rails.

A tremendous number of people have written in asking for a downloadable version of my presentation, so here you go:

I’m really happy that the talk was useful. If you were there, please and let me know what you thought, good or bad.

Thanks!

Cork'd Has Been Acquired

2007-05-14T13:16:47-04:00

It’s been over a year since Dan Cederholm and I launched Cork’d, and we have some great news to share: Cork’d has been acquired.

The Short Story

Cork’d has been acquired by a newly formed company, helmed by Gary Vaynerchuk of Wine Library TV fame. We’re psyched, and this means only great things for Cork’d members. Cork’d will remain a free, member-driven community. Its wine database will increase in a big way, the data will become more accurate, and tons of new features are already being added. In other words, just like before, only better.Here’s Dan Cederholm’s take.

The Long Story

Over the last year, we’ve had a number of offers from companies wanting to either heavily invest in or purchase Cork’d. We got to spend time talking with a few bigger media companies on both coasts. And although we came pretty close a few times, for one reason or another, it just wasn’t the right fit. As it turns out, the perfect place for Cork’d was right there all along, hidden in plain sight.But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Building a Community

Dan and I didn’t build Cork’d with the intention of one day selling it – the idea of making any money from it at all was only ever hinted at, maybe in a best-case scenario. Our hope was that we’d be able to offset hosting costs by selling an ad or two, but actually profiting from the website wasn’t something we’d ever planned on.After all, Cork’d was a niche site, a place for wine lovers who aren’t wine masters to meet and share their wine experiences. Cork’d is a site that an average person can visit to learn a bit about wine, get a recommendation or two, and type up some tasting notes without feeling overwhelmed, out of their depth, or talked-down to.We’d built the site over a few months, working in our spare time during evenings and weekends. We were trying out new techniques, pulling out the stops, seeing what it would be like to create a site that wasn’t driven by client deadlines, statements of work, or contractual obligations. We were building it for fun.Of course we had no idea if Cork’d would ever become something people would actually use. I remember right after launch we agreed that if we had a total of 500 user sign-ups in the next 30 days, the site would be a huge success. As it turned out, we had that many members within the next few hours. Within the week, we had over 5,000 new members. We were amazed as the user base climbed to over 20,000. Our traffic continued to grow. We outgrew our dedicated server. And when Cork’d started appearing at the top of many wine searches on Google, we knew we’d hit on something with a real potential.Sure, I wrote some decent code behind the scenes, but a very big part of the site’s success was due to Dan Cederholm’s amazing branding and design skills. Working with him is always enjoyable, and our two disciplines overlap in a really complimentary way. We share the same thoughts on interactivity and spent a lot of time working together on the usability, the site’s flow, and its overall process. It was really a 50/50 effort, and a whole lot of fun.Because we were building Cork’d for people like us, and because we didn’t have any limitations on what we could and couldn’t do, we could experiment, challenge our notions about convention, and have a good time. If it’s not fun, we used to say, then we won’t do it.People really liked Cork’d, and to our amazement, a community of truly interested and dedicated people had been born. People were adding wines at an incredible rate, over 20,000 wines have been created by members so far. And people were really using the site, keeping track of the wines they had in their cellar, journaling and adding tasting tags. Some people were even having Cork’d parties, using the site as a hub for their tasting notes and recommendations.

With Great Power …

Supporting an audience like this requires a certain level of responsibility. But at the end of a long work day, we didn’t always have the energy or time to roll out the new Cork’d features our members were asking for. We both loved how the community was growing, but keeping up with it was getting tougher all the time.For example, do you know how many separate wine regions there are in Burgundy, let alone France as a whole? Well, neither do we. What had started as a community for average wine enthusiasts had grown into something more, and that was the problem: neither Dan C. nor I are wine experts. As the the community grew, so did the experience level of the audience and with it, their expectations.Dan C. and I were starting to realize that an investment or purchase might be the only way that Cork’d could continue to grow in time with its community.We were approached by a couple of big media companies, a few direct-sale companies out of Napa, and a couple of independents in the Bay Area. What was most important to us was the future of the website. We were concerned about what might become of Cork’d after it was sold. Did they really want to preserve the community, or just transform the website into a giant, gleaming advertisement? That was our biggest worry: we didn’t want Cork’d to become just a marketing vehicle for another site, a giant billboard with no soul and 20,000 disenchanted users. We wanted the opposite of this. We wanted to find a place where Cork’d would continue to grow, where it would become bigger and better than it could with our limited time and knowledge.

Meanwhile, In New Jersey

We sold ads on Cork’d to help offset hosting costs, and later to make a little return on our time investment (we were still putting in a bunch of time, fixing bugs, managing content, and adding features as we could). One of our longest running advertisers was Wine Library TV, Gary Vaynerchuk’s excellent wine videocast. Each month, Gary would call us and buy out the top-spot in the Cork’d sidebar. Behind the scenes, he was always talking about partnering with us, coming up with ways we could enhance Cork’d, tie us in to his huge database of wines and wine labels – he really wanted to see Cork’d succeed.We started to think that maybe Cork’d might fit into the Gary’s family of wine websites. Gary’s enthusiasm for wine is contagious and his experience and knowledge about wine and the wine industry is immense. But he knows how to make it entertaining and fun … the same goals we’d always had for Cork’d.Gary was obviously a huge Cork’d fan and it was clear that he “got” good design. Even better, he was already using Rails to build his newer sites so there wouldn’t be a huge transition … it all seemed to fit so perfectly.

Meet the New Boss, Same As … Well, You Know

So this time, when Gary’s monthly advertising call came in, we started a dialogue about a possible acquisition – would Cork’d fit with his long-range vision for wine online? Would he want to keep it alive, invest his resources into making it better than ever, keep the community alive, never make it into a big billboard, and never sell out our users?His answer was a resounding yes, and so, a few weeks and a few hundred lines of code later (adding some most-requested features was part of the deal), we are incredibly happy to make this announcement.Cork’d couldn’t have found a better home.

The Tongue

2007-05-08T17:35:11-04:00

This is the first time in 12 years that I’ve been able to take a non-blurry picture of this cat.I’m loving this new camera already, even though I don’t know what the heck I’m doing yet.

MacBook Battery Is Toast After Being Fully Drained

2007-04-15T10:42:21-04:00

First, the short version: I went on a quick vacation and put my Macbook into Sleep Mode (and eventually Safe Sleep Mode) before I left. When I got back, the Macbook wasn’t recognizing its battery after being fully drained, displaying a black “X” in the battery icon in the menu bar.This problem is known to Apple and they will replace the battery if your Macbook (or Macbook Pro) is under warranty. It can be easily avoided by shutting your Macbook down if you won’t be using it for more than a day.

The Longer, More Entertaining Version

So I went on a quick vacation, just three nights, down to the seaside town of Sarasota, Florida. The trip would mark several events, all seeming to occur within days of each other. It would also be the first vacation of any kind for a long stretch, months really, without a break.Under these circumstances, as you’re packing up to head out of town, it’s not unreasonable to forget one or two things on the way out the door. At the behest of my wife (always the voice of reason), I wasn’t bringing my Macbook with me. I’d be able to completely unplug for a bit.

The Situation

In the hurry to pack and go, I closed the Macbook’s lid, putting it to sleep in the process, and set it on my desk. Sure, I was aware that this would drain the battery, but Macbooks and Macbook Pros (and late model Powerbooks) have a handy feature called Safe Sleep where the system’s state (even the data in RAM) is saved to the hard drive. So if you’ve put your portable to sleep and the battery runs down completely, your data will be safely cached and when you return, you can plug in and everything will be just where you left it.I’ve done this a number of times on my trusty Macbook and it always seemed to work perfectly.

The Problem

Upon returning home, the time finally came to catch up on email.I plugged in and hit the power button, but the Macbook didn’t display the “waking from Safe Sleep progress bar”. Instead, it booted up as if from a total power loss.This didn’t concern me initially because Mac OS X uses a Journaled file system, making recovery from a crash a bit easier.Then I noticed that there was a little black “X” on the battery symbol in the menubar. When I clicked on the Battery menu item, the drop-down menu showed me that the Macbook wasn’t recognizing the battery at all.A quick search on Apple’s Support site returned an article about this problem with one subtle difference. The article says (emphasis mine):

If you have fully drained the battery, once you plug in the MacBook or MacBook Pro’s power cord and start the computer up, you may see a red X over the battery icon in the menu bar.

The “X” I was seeing was black, not red, but I figured walking through the steps they recommend couldn’t hurt. So I re-seated the battery a few times, reset the PMU, and reset the PRAM, all to no avail.A quick iChat with my good friend/nemesis Gruber confirmed my suspicion that the battery was toast. Assuming that I’d have to buy a new battery but hopeful that it might be covered, I scheduled an appointment with an Apple Genius at the Apple Store in the Florida Mall.

The Solution

It turns out that, after being left in Safe Sleep for four or five days, the battery wasn’t just drained, it was fully drained of power. There’s a subtle difference here, and it seems that the latter can sometimes cause complete battery death.The Apple Genius was familiar with the problem. After quickly testing with his own power supply and a known-good battery, he let me know that they’ve seen this before with Macbooks and Macbook Pros, and that it was fully covered on Macbooks that are still under warranty.I left with a brand new battery, and learned a nice lesson: shut your Macbook down completely if you don’t plan to use it for more than a few hours.

T-Shirt Shipment Update

2007-04-14T10:13:53-04:00

Here’s an update on the status of Hivelogic T-Shirt shipments, orders, membership, and more.

Hivelogic Membership

If you have already received your officially sanctioned Hivelogic T-Shirt, you may have noticed the paper insert containing your Membership Key. The Membership Section is now live, ready for you to enter your key and get registered.

I bet you didn’t know you were becoming a Hivelogic Member when you were purchasing a T-Shirt, did you? Well, neither did I … it was a last minute idea, but it may just prove to be an interesting experiment going forward.

I’m sorry the Membership Section wasn’t online by the time some of you received your T-Shirts. I went on a quick trip without my Macbook and didn’t realize I hadn’t deployed the latest code before I left. A big thanks to Ezra at EngineYard for his quick response and help getting a “coming soon” page in place when I called him via my cell phone from a noisy coffee shop down by the Marina.

Domestic Shipment Status

All of the domestic T-Shirt orders shipped out on Monday. If you’re in the continental US and haven’t received yours yet, it should be arriving presently. Once you get it, why not take a picture, upload it to Flickr, and add it to the Hivelogic Group.

International Shipment Status

These orders should ship no later than Monday, April 16th. Shipping a T-Shirt overseas requires a customs form … and these need to be filled out by hand. The form is a bit tedious and time consuming, hence the slight delay in shipping out the international orders. But don’t worry, they’ll be there soon!

What Else Is New?

Actually, there’s a whole lot that’s been happening that I can’t talk about just yet. Stay tuned, some interesting news is forthcoming.

Advice Needed: HDMI or Component?

2007-04-06T21:06:50-04:00

I have a new upconverting AV Receiver with two HDMI inputs and multiple Component inputs, and an HDMI output to the TV.

I have three devices and need to figure out the best way to hook up their video (I’ll be using optical audio connections):

A DVD player which upconverts to 1080i
An Apple TV that seems to output at 1080i
A DVR (from the cable company) that outputs at 1080i

So here’s the question: I can only hook up 2 of the devices using HDMI … the other will have to be hooked up using Component.

How do I hook them up?

Hivelogic T-Shirts Are Here

2007-04-05T13:25:15-04:00

They will start to ship out this week!

Morning Meditation

2007-04-03T10:42:29-04:00

Free Floating Trash

2007-04-02T14:58:22-04:00

This morning, early (even for me – I usually start the day when it’s still quite dark), I heard a loud bang! which, even in deep sleep, my mind identified as plastic hitting pavement.

I knew intuitively that it was a trash-can. Our neighbor’s trash-can, but not our trash-can. Our trash can is of the heavy, thick, square plastic variety, with a hinged lid, chunky black wheels and a very stable base. It would be tough to push over, even for a big dog or animal.

But the neighbors across the street, they use one of those flimsy cheap round trash-cans that are hard to keep upright when you’re rolling them down the driveway.

Those kinds of trash-cans, a strong wind can knock over.

Looking out the window this morning, my suspicions were confirmed: their trash-can was on its side, the entire contents spilled onto their driveway, ripped open and torn apart by a dog or raccoon, littering the roadway.

They hadn’t bothered to put the lid on it.

Right at that moment, their garage door opened and I saw the wife walk down the driveway. She picked the refuse up from the road and tossed it into the trash-can and left the thing, still with no lid on it, but now with free-floating trash inside, and drove off.

T-Shirt Status Update

2007-03-31T09:00:43-04:00

Just a quick update, the T-Shirts have been printed and were shipped out on Friday.

They should arrive here in Orlando mid-week, and will start shipping out to recipients immediately.

We’re trying a new shipping system here at Hivelogic HQ based on what we learned from shipping out all of the Cork’d T-Shirts last year.

More details (and pictures) coming soon!

Simplebits Logo Appropriated?

2007-03-21T10:59:41-04:00

Update: The intent of my post here was to simply suggest the possibility that Dan’s logo was appropriated. A visitor here points out in the comments that there is a more lively and in-depth discussion going on over at Flickr.

In December of 2006, Dan Cederholm launched a new logo and website design for his business and weblog, Simplebits.

Now, LogoMaid is selling a logo bearing a striking similarity to Dan’s on their website.

T-Shirt Update (Updated, Ha!)

2007-03-18T10:37:37-04:00

Update: Ok, ok! Enough of you are asking me to wait a bit longer before I place the order (seems like a bunch of you still need more time to order). I’ll hold off placing my order until Wednesday, March 21st ad 12pm EST. But that’s it!

I’m totally humbled by your response to the T-Shirt Sale. I had no idea so many people would want one. Thanks so much to everybody who has bought one, this is really amazing.

Of course, having a Dan Cederholm designed logo doesn’t hurt sales, either.

A few people have written in asking when they will ship. Just like it says at the bottom of my T-Shirts page, I’ll be placing the first order at 12pm EST on Monday, March 19th (which also happens to be my Mom’s birthday … happy birthday Mom!).

So if you haven’t ordered your shirt and want to get in on the first (and possibly only?) batch, order now.

Upcoming Guests on Hivelogic Radio (Any Suggestions?)

2007-03-07T11:21:37-05:00

Here are a few of the upcoming guests on the Hivelogic Radio podcast:

Brent Simmons, creator of NetNewsWire
Joey DeVilla, The Accordian Guy
Ernie Hsiung, Little Yellow Different

These are already recorded and mostly ready, it’s just a matter of final mixdown.

Have a suggestion for somebody I should have on the show? Let me know here in the comments!

Hivelogic

Vidlink for OS X

Addictomatic

Regarding Backups

Past Lives

The Short Answer

The Data

Code and Writing

Bookmarks, Address Book, Serial Numbers, and Passwords

Mail

System Cloning

Time Machine

Documents

Photos, Video, and Music

The Solution

Final Thoughts

Offices and The Creativity Zone

The Zone

Regarding Flash on the iPhone

Installing Ruby, Rubygems, Rails, and Mongrel on Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)

The FAQ (Sort Of)

Prerequisites

Just In Case

A Note about sudo

Using Terminal

Paths

Setting Up

Ruby

RubyGems

Ruby on Rails

The MySQL Gem

We’re Done

Help Me Choose a New Bag

What I Carry

Bags I’m Considering

Podcasting Equipment Guide

Some Background Noise

A Note about Software

A Note about Latency

Put My Kid Through College: Use My Affiliate Links

The Entry Level Setup

The Midrange Setup

The Prosumer Setup

A Bit of Advice about Technique

It’s a Wrap

Interarchy 9

Things

The Enkoder ... for Leopard?

The Enkoder Web Form is Back

36 Startup Tips

Introducing Joel Benjamin

Installing MySQL on Mac OS X

Why You Might Want to Build MySQL Yourself

A Quick Warning

Prerequisites

A Note About Existing MySQL Installations

Terminal

Setting the Path

Setting Up

Download, Extract, Etc.

Auto-Starting MySQL

Starting and Stopping MySQL Manually

A Note about Security

Baking-In the MySQL Bindings

Uninstalling MySQL

That’s It

"Installing Rails on Leopard" Article Coming Soon

Daring Fireball T-Shirt Spotted on CBS Sunday Morning

My Railsconf 2007 Slides

Cork'd Has Been Acquired

The Short Story

The Long Story

Building a Community

With Great Power …

Meanwhile, In New Jersey

Meet the New Boss, Same As … Well, You Know

The Tongue

MacBook Battery Is Toast After Being Fully Drained

The Longer, More Entertaining Version

The Situation

A Note about `sudo`